ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the relevance of spatial questions for digital public spheres research and develops the concept of issue spatiality. Issue spatiality is a macro-level property of digital public issue discourses. It emerges from the practice of place-naming when actors discuss issues in relation to places in their public communication. For instance, events take place in specific locations, policy regulations apply to specific territories, a problem is perceived to worsen or improve in a particular place. Over time, place-naming by a diverse set of actors forms a collective answer to the question of “where” for an issue, that is, its issue space. Because space structures social action, including public communication, the book focuses on how inequalities in local communicative resources and infrastructures impact issue spaces. In line with this, the chapter specifies two research questions aimed at describing and explaining issue spaces. It concludes by outlining the remainder of the book.
